TITLE:
Legal Environment and SACCOS Financial Performance in Mbeya, Tanzania: Mediated by Corporate Governance
AUTHORS:
Stewart Mbegu
KEYWORDS:
Legal Environment, Corporate Governance, Financial Performance, SACCOS, Institutional Theory
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Access Library Journal,
Vol.13 No.1,
January
28,
2026
ABSTRACT: The study was conducted in the Mbeya region of Tanzania, analyzing how corporate governance and the legal environment affected the financial performance of Savings and Credit Cooperative Societies (SACCOS), with a focus on the mediating role of corporate governance. A quantitative survey utilizing a census of 83 active SACCOS collected primary data via structured questionnaires. The study reveals that corporate governance has a substantial and positive direct effect on the financial performance of SACCOS (β = 0.966, p β = 0.977, p β = −0.098, p = 0.027). Nevertheless, corporate governance fully mediates the relationship between the legal environment and financial performance, resulting in a strong positive indirect effect of the legal environment on performance (β = 0.944, p